CHAPTER XIV.
On the 13th of December, 1841, Gen. Sam Houston was inaugurated, for the second time, as President of the Republic of Texas.[1] The Government was now in a greatly worse state than when he took its reins five years before. The body politic had fallen into premature and inflammatory decay, not a disease merely, but a relapse. He had formed a Government out of chaos; it was his work now to save it from ruin. Millions in debt, the treasury was empty, and without credit on which to borrow another dollar. The money had been wasted while the debt still hung over the Republic; the promissory notes and liabilities of the Government had depreciated ten to one, payment postponed, but not repudiated.
In such a sad state of finances Gen. Houston proposed a new currency, called the exchequer system, the entire issues of which were not to exceed $200,000. For the redemption of this currency, he asked Congress to guarantee the customs of the country, and certain tracts of land amounting to about three millions of acres. An act had passed, through his agency while in Congress, declaring these lands not subject to location. Members of Congress were unwilling, however, to pledge lands, as such a course would interfere with private interests, but they were quite willing to hypothecate the customs. Opposition, rank and fierce, combined against
- ↑ At the election held in September, 1841, 11,531 votes were polled; Sam Houston received 7,915 votes, David G. Burnet 3,616 votes, for President. Edward Burleson received 6,141 votes, and Memucan Hunt 4,336 votes, for Vice-President. The following were the leading officers during this Administration: Anson Jones, Secretary of State; George W. Hockley and George W. Hill, Secretaries of War and Navy; William H. Daingerfield and James B. Miller.Secretaries of the Treasury; George W. Terrell and Ebenezer Allen, Attorney-Generals; Asa Brigham, Treasurer; Francis R. Lubbock and James B. Shaw, Comptrollers; Charles Mason, Auditor; John P. Borden and Thomas William Ward, Commissioners of the General Land Office; James Reiley, Isaac Van Zandt, and J. Pinckney Henderson, Ministers to the United States; Ashbel Smith, Minister to France; William Henry Daingerfield, Minister to the Netherlands, Belgium, and the Hanse Towns; Charles H. Raymond, Secretary of Legation to the United States.
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